VTS, Gladstone’s to Cooperate

Virginia Theological Seminary has signed an agreement with Gladstone’s Library in North Wales. The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president, and the Rev. Melody Knowles, vice president for academic affairs and associate professor of Old Testament, represented the seminary in a meeting with the Rev. Peter Francis, warden of Gladstone’s.

The agreement reads, in part: “Two historical institutions committed to learning and reflection on faith agree to provide opportunities for scholars to research, rest, and pray. We believe that we need thoughtful Christians who are ready and willing to engage constructively with the predicaments and possibilities of modernity. We trust that this partnership will create such Christian leaders.”

“This important agreement will ensure that the Seminary continues to produce publications that serve both the Church and the academic guild,” Markham said. “Our service to the Church is a matter of creating a learned clergy of men and women who are committed to the life of the mind. We are blessed with a distinguished and widely published faculty, who all have substantial research projects.”

The agreement, which takes effect on October 1, 2014, provides opportunities for Gladstone’s Library staff to visit VTS for research, advice, and employee development, as well as a residency for a member of the VTS Faculty.

Founded in 1894 by the British statesman and politician William Ewart Gladstone, Gladstone’s Library is Great Britain’s largest residential library. It is considered an important research library with more than 250,000 items, mostly in theology, history, and literature.